Proposal for people to use digital signatures for free

The proposal for a “cost sharing model” was made by Mat Bao (MATBAO-CA), an enterprise providing digital signature authentication services, at a workshop on digital signatures and trust services organized by the National Electronic Authentication Center (NEAC) in Can Tho, August 26.

Accordingly, organizations and businesses providing services will pay the cost of using digital signatures, while people, customers, patients or parents of students can use them for free in some transactions.

For example, a hospital can pay the cost of a digital signature for patients to sign a treatment commitment on the phone. Schools can support digital signing costs for parents to sign admission documents, while banks can pay fees for customers to sign loan contracts online. This approach is to create conditions for people to access digital signatures, thereby forming transaction habits in the electronic environment.

Digital signature is a method of authenticating identity and document content in the online environment, with the same legal value as a handwritten signature. The tool is being used in tax declaration, signing contracts, and online transactions, helping to save time and increase transparency.

In fact, in Vietnam digital signatures have been included in many essential services. Saigon Water Supply Corporation (Sawaco) said it has used digital signatures in electronic water supply contracts, changed names, installed new meters and adjusted water levels. Accounting software company Misa also integrates digital signing into many processes such as contract signing, electronic invoices, documents and internal approvals.

According to NEAC, by the end of June, Vietnam had issued nearly 32 million digital signature certificates, with the popularity rate among the adult population reaching 45.62%. Billions of electronic transactions have been made.

However, there are still places where digital signatures are not really popular. For example, in Can Tho, the leader of the Department of Science and Technology here said that the city has 616,489 public digital certificates, equivalent to 25% of the population aged 15 and over. The locality is coordinating with the Ministry of Science and Technology to increase the rate of digital signature ownership to 100% of the population in the next 5 years.

From practical implementation, leaders of the Can Tho Department of Science and Technology said that to popularize this service, it is necessary to change the approach from “issuing digital signatures” to “using digital signatures”, from “number of certificates” to “number of actual transactions”.

Mr. Pham Quoc Hoan, Deputy Director of the National Electronic Authentication Center, emphasized that digital signatures are not only a technical tool for signing documents but an important component of the infrastructure that creates trust in the digital environment.

“Digital transformation needs to be measured by actual transactions, the number of paper processes replaced, time and cost saved, instead of just the number of certificates issued,” he said, adding that Vietnam needs to develop a trusted service ecosystem, including electronic authentication, digital signature certificates, electronic stamps, timestamp issuance services and other services.